After months ofabuse, she reported Acosta, 23, to police and filed a restraining order against him.

In her restraining order petition, Pamatz said Acosta had access to firearms. She requested that he be ordered not to possess or purchase a gun because, she said, "I feel he is capable of hurting me and other people."

She filed the restraining order in June 2016. Acosta was convicted of assault two months later. One month later,neighbors of Pamatz called police after hearing multiple shots fired at the home she shared with her family on the 2500 block of Hyde Court on the afternoon of Sept. 19, 2016.

Salem police discovered Pamatz's lifeless body and scoured the neighborhood for the shooter. Within hours, they released a photo of Acosta and a description of his 2004 Mitsubishi Lancer. Acostawas wanted in connection with her death, police said.

Early the next morning, a Whatcom County, Washington, sheriff's deputy, stopped Acosta just short of the Canadian border.

He was taken into custody and later charged with aggravated murder with a firearm, endangering a person protected by a restraining order and violating his probation.

In her restraining order filing, Pamatz cited a series of violent and threatening encounters. During one incident in May 2016, she said, Acosta grabbed the steering wheel while she was driving, pulled her hair and seized her wrist.

"I told him to stop," she wrote in the order. "He was hurting me, and I was really afraid."

Once she parked, he grabbed her face and ripped her shirt. She said before she blacked out, she opened the door and yelled for help.

Lucia Guadalupe Pamatz poses for a school photo at South Salem High School.

Lucia Guadalupe Pamatz poses for a school photo at South Salem High School.

Courtesy of Salem-Keizer School District

The day before the May attack, she said, Acosta threatened via text message to hurt Pamatz and her mother.

"I don't care if your family suffers," he texted. "I just want you gone."

Acosta pleaded guilty to fourth-degree domestic violence assault in August 2016. He was sentenced by Judge Vance Day to 18 months probation and ordered to undergo batterer intervention training.

He was also ordered to stay away from Pamatz.

Acosta was held without bail at Marion County jail after he was extradited from Washington. On Tuesday, he was led into the court room unshackled and dressed in a button down shirt and slacks. Pamatz's family let out a sob as he walked past them.

Acosta answered a series of Marion County Judge Courtland Geyer's questions with "yes, sir" and "no, sir" before the judge accepted his guilty plea and waiver of sentencing before a jury.

An aggravated murder charge, which could carry a death sentence, usually requires a sentencing phase before a jury.

Instead, prosecutors and Acosta's defense attorneys will present evidence during a three-day hearing before Geyer. Prosecutor Jennifer Gardiner said the state decided not to pursue the death penalty.

Acosta could face life in prison without parole or a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 30 years. Acosta, who is not a U.S. citizen, would face deportation upon his release from prison.

Gardiner said prosecutors will argue for a true life sentence without the possibility of parole.